Obama ‘You Didn’t Build That’ Clip
By Matt Metzner on 07/19/2012 in Fox News, hack, mitt romney, Obama, you didn't build that with 7 CommentsRead Time: 2 - 4 minutes
President Barack Obama made a comment stating ‘you didn’t build that’ during a speech in Roanoke, VA that has been mangled and twisted by Fox News, the Romney campaign, and the right then set the internet abuzz. Watch the clip below as the President refers to the support of other Americans necessary for all of us to succeed:
I couldn’t agree more with President Obama. He’s right that success is often built in collaboration with other people, whether that is parents, teachers, friends, mentors, or partners. Often we don’t build the roads that lead to our businesses or the infrastructure necessary to make it available to customers. When the president says ‘you didn’t build that’ he is talking about the tools outside of your control necessary for success.
Fox and the Romney campaign have clipped the video to look like the ‘you didn’t build that’ comment was referring to the business. Take a look here:
Dave Weigel at Slate pointed readers to the body language and repetition used in the second clip and the minor slip up in the speech that allowed the RNC and Fox to flip the statement on its head. Playing the clip multiple times usually is intended to distract viewers from the context in which it is said.
After watching the first clip it’s clear what the Obama was emphasizing. It’s easier to spot the partisan hackery of the latter. So when your friend posts a clip on Facebook or a cartoon referring to the comment. Instead of telling them to look at it in context. Remind them to thank a teacher that helped them learn to read. Or a group of programmers who built networks that allow them to regurgitate thoughtless information. Or the workers who maintain the infrastructure necessary to support these tools and opportunities. Because I’ve got a feeling that they didn’t build that.




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7 Comments
Chas Holman
07.19.2012
Today Ann Romney told the American people….
“WE’VE Given All YOU PEOPLE Need to Know’ .
‘You people’……
Get it yet?
Conservative Ideals.
07.19.2012
Obama is trying to re-edit his comments to delete his comment and pretend that he didn’t ever say what Romney is accusing him of saying. It’s in the transcript. Obama said it, and his attack ad against Romney is flat out a lie. It shows Romney quoting the president, and then a part of the speech where obama says something different – not the part that Romney is accurately quoting, and then tries to appear as though obama never said “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that…” at all. Our president needs to be replaced, I look forward to Romney’s inauguration.
Chad Peace
07.19.2012
@Chad_Peace
You can’t be serious. The entire clip is there. Are you suggesting that the video posted was edited as part of some Obama conspiracy? Just because you don’t like Obama or his politics, doesn’t mean a good way to promote positive change is by taking words that he said completely out of context. That is what Romney’s campaign has done. I’m no Obama cheerleader, but Romney, and blind Obama is getting out of hand. As a qualifier, I think the petty ads going after Romney are terrible too … Romney is just a more overt misquoter.
Mark Urbo
07.19.2012
As history shows – on the way to this socialist utopia or about the time the far left thinks they are making progress – the economy will meltdown and all will be lost because socialism is NOT sustainable. A socialist utopia is a smile on an OWS dog.
Dan Richards
07.19.2012
@danrich
When someone builds a business, it is their hard work and their ideas that build that business. For this fraud of a President, to say what he did, is to say these people have taken no more chances than the next man or woman. That is simply not true. They put their lives on the line, and often if it fails that means they loose everything. Are you going to help them rebuild if it fails? If not, then realize that what the President is saying is an insult to the people that built this country and what we once had.
These people did build that. To say anything less is to insult them, and degrade their efforts. Yes they do work just as hard, but because they are building their own business, they work even longer, and with less to get their dream going. An entrepreneur (Someone who organizes a business venture and assumes the risk for it), will for long periods of time work for less and make do with less than the most people that Obama was talking about. It takes a certain type of guts to even try to endure starting a business, something Obama would not have the faintest idea about.
Chad Peace
07.19.2012
@Chad_Peace
Did you actually watch the video? That’s not what Obama said.
Dan Richards
07.20.2012
@danrich
Yes that is what he was saying. That they had someone holding their hand, and that they worked no harder, no more, and took no more risks than any one else. Just the same old lame ideology Obama has been known for since he became a Senator. People that build businesses put a lot on the risks, they work longer hours than most others, and yes, “they did build that”. Which is like I said, something Obama would know nothing about.